By Naomi Lakritz, The Calgary Herald March 16, 2010 - What part of the word "freedom" does Quebec not understand? Two recent news stories should leave the rest of Canada scratching its head over just how clear la belle province is on the concept.

In the first incident, an Egyptian immigrant named Naema Ahmed was tossed out of a French class for newcomers to the province because she was wearing a niqab, a veil that leaves only the eyes exposed. One of the recommendations that came out of the Bouchard-Taylor commission in 2008 on religious and minority accommodation was that judges, Crown attorneys, police and jail guards not be allowed to wear religious symbols. Ahmed is none of those. She was a student at Montreal's CEGEP St-Laurent. In fact, the commission recommended students be permitted to wear hijabs, kippahs, turbans, etc. in class if they want to, something that is already happening because in Canada, one is free to dress as one pleases. Regardless, none of these taboos is enshrined in law -- yet.

The niqab is not a religious symbol, but a tribal one, and to western cultures it represents the subsuming of a woman's identity to patriarchal dictates. Here in Canada, we don't think women should cover their faces. And we think immigrant women need to realize this.

That is where Quebec Immigration Minister Yolande James went wrong. According to CTV, James herself asked in writing for Ahmed to remove her niqab or face expulsion. Why is a cabinet minister hounding a private citizen?

Paul-Emile Bourque, the CEGEP's director general, said Ahmed had originally agreed to remove her niqab. Then, she removed it when a woman adviser was present, but didn't want men in the class to see her face. Eventually, she refused altogether. After she was booted from class -- ostensibly because the niqab interfered with the teacher helping her with pronunciation -- she was told to take the course online. Ahmed has complained to the Quebec Human Rights Commission.

How many times have we heard grumbling about immigrants who can't be bothered learning either of Canada's two official languages? Here was Ahmed, taking a French class so she could integrate into Canadian society -- a process which could lead to her adopting western ways of thinking and abandoning the niqab of her own free will -- and she was denied schooling. Denying women schooling smacks most unpleasantly of the Taliban regime, doesn't it?

Where Quebec errs in its obsession about minorities is in thinking it has a right to tell people what to wear. James says there's some talk about legislating the wearing of head coverings. Since when does a government in a democracy legislate what people can wear? And how will such legislation be enforced? Would women like Ahmed be thrown in jail? Fined? Dragged into court, needlessly clogging up already backlogged dockets?

Westernization can't be forced on an immigrant from the outside. It has to take root and grow, like new tendrils appearing on a vine and reaching out in different directions; it's an evolutionary process, not a sudden metamorphosis. Ahmed was initiating it herself by learning French.

In another bizarre spasm of minority-phobia, the Quebec government announced that 20 government-subsidized day-care centres will be banned from offering religious instruction. One is an Islamic-run centre in Laval, and another is Montreal's Beth Rivkah day care, where, according to its website, the children's "activities are driven by the spirit of Torah and the Jewish tradition." Hard to know what the government is so terrified of. It's not like non-Muslim or non-Jewish parents will be sending their children to those day-care centres to be proselytized.

The government says it plans to meet with the day-care operators, according to CBC, to "work with them to eliminate religion from their program." Annie Turcot, speaking for a group of publicly funded day-care centres in the Montreal area, says that a daycare's mission "is really to help families integrate into Quebec culture."

That's news to me. I thought a daycare's mission was to mind people's kids while the parents are at work. I'm not sure how practising one's faith and placing children in a day care where that faith is transmitted to them prevents integration into "Quebec culture." And since when do Jews need to be integrated into Quebec culture? Most in Montreal are descendants of people who came to Canada a century ago.

In the late 19th century, brochures were circulated in Europe advertising for immigrants to Canada and extolling the beauties and prosperity of this country. Maybe new brochures should be circulated -- warning people to stay away from Quebec, which is fast becoming the most hostile province in Canada for anyone of a minority culture or religion.

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Naomi Lakritz writes for the Calgary Herald.